Napier Citizens Advice Bureau set to shift

Napier Citizens Advice Bureau manager Jenny Pearce (centre) with volunteers Bryce and Lyn getting ready to pack up for the move to new premises. Photo / Duncan Brown

For the Citizens Advice Bureau crew in Napier, the plans to move location are well and truly in place.

A shift to new premises is on the cards in the wake of the lease of their present offices in Raffles St not being renewed and a new buyer stepping in.

However, as manager Jenny Pearce said, it's not something the 50 devoted volunteers in the crew aren't used to as back in 2013 they had to up and leave their long-time rooms at Memorial Square.

"We've got the boxes and tape ready," Pearce said.

The bureau will close its doors at the Napier Community Hub in Raffles St on Friday August 24 and open their new doors, in Hastings St beside the BNZ bank, on August 27.

"So we will be having a pretty busy weekend," she said.

"But we've got a great team here and we don't want to be closed too long."

She said it was important that people knew they were on the move, and said all their usual contact lines would remain the same and signage would show where they were operating from.

It would not be the last shift for the bureau however, as the Hastings St move would effectively be temporary before a more long-term site could be found.

Pearse said the Napier City Council had been supportive as there were very few suitable buildings available for lease that would suit the bureau's needs.

"They have been very good and this will work for us until we have something more permanent."

Part of the long-term plan could be establishing the bureau within the proposed new Napier Public Library building.

The library is also on a temporary site, at the MTG.

On the council's website, chief executive Wayne Jack said the council was working on a strategy and that once it was completed later this year could then begin to contemplate where the new central library would be.

"The library building on Station St is still on the table," he said.

"All of the council administrative services, including the library, can fit into that building if it's renovated appropriately, and is affordable.

"So that's still an option, as well as a number of other sites around the CBD that we're investigating too."